It was actually going to be a perfect beach day, Lillo thought. She pushed the comforter away and sat up on the couch. Someone had opened the sliding glass doors to the deck to let in fresh warm air. Yep, a perfect beach day.
Too bad she felt like she’d been hit by oncoming traffic. She rested her elbows on her knees and lowered her head to her hands as reality began to seep in. Bobby in the lighthouse. Mac being shot.
She reached for her phone. Nothing had come in during the night. Not since Clancy had called to say the surgery went great, and Mac was awake and demanding to be brought home. That was a good sign. It had been close. Oh God, how close.
Jess sat at the breakfast bar, yawning and squinting at the screen of the new, doubly protected, unlisted-number, waterproof cell phone she’d bought on their sightseeing excursion.
“I defy anyone to try to hack into my phone,” she said as Lillo padded over to the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Did you hear from Clancy this morning?”
“No. But I’m sure he would call me if things weren’t going well. I’ll give him a call when I’m fully awake.”
“Allie and Diana are awfully quiet this morning.”
“I’m not sure Diana came home at all last night,” Lillo said, joining Jess at the counter.
“She didn’t,” Allie called through the bedroom door.
“Sorry; didn’t mean to wake you,” Jess called back. She looked at Lillo. “You think Diana and Ian . . .”
Lillo shrugged. “Stranger things have happened. Maybe this is just what needed to happen. The immovable meets the unstoppable.”
“Diana can be persistent, in business and in matters of the heart.”
Lillo put down her mug. “You don’t think her heart is involved? Already?” She wasn’t worried about Diana. She wasn’t sure Ian could withstand the siege.
And where the hell would it lead, except to disaster?
“Well, it’s after ten,” Jess said. “Do you think we should be worried? I mean what if she didn’t stay over and she’s lying hurt somewhere in the woods?”
Allie padded into the room. She was wearing boy boxers and a Bob the Builder T-shirt. Her hair was about as crazy as long hair could get. “She called. It was late. She said she was fine, and she’d be back someday.”
“Aw, crap,” Lillo said. “I don’t guess she mentioned how Ian was.”
“Nope. I started to ask, but she hung up.”
“Do you think he left a necktie on his doorknob so Doc would know he had company?” Jess asked.
Lillo sputtered coffee. She hadn’t considered that Ned would be there to witness the seduction, maybe not firsthand, but . . . would he intervene? “Really, Jess? I don’t think he owns a tie.”
“I can hardly wait to hear all about it.”
“Huh,” Allie said, and zombie-walked to the coffeepot.
“Why don’t you go back to sleep? We’ve got nothing on the agenda,” Lillo said.
Lillo’s cell rang.
“Hopefully,” Jess added, and Lillo ran outside to take the call.
She was back two minutes later. “That was Clancy. He’s going to try to get Mac released this afternoon, since she’s giving everybody hell. He said the duty nurses were bribing him to bring her home.”
“Oh dear.” Allie poured herself a cup of coffee. “Though that’s good; she must be okay or they’d never release her even if they wanted to. I was hoping to see her before I leave. And I really have to leave tomorrow.”
“Then this will be perfect,” Jess said. “Wish you didn’t have to go, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do.”
“Right.” Allie parked herself on the third stool and they all looked forward into the kitchen.
“It feels like we’re sitting at a diner counter,” Jess said. “Too bad the old luncheonette burned down. You would have liked it.”
The front door blew open and Diana appeared in the doorway.
“Too early for dramatic entrances,” Allie said.
Diana softly closed the door. “Okay, I’m a little embarrassed. I have a confession to make.”
“I need another cup of coffee,” Lillo said. “I’ll bring the pot.”
“So it’s like this. I seduced your vet. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. He took a while to convince that hell wouldn’t freeze over, or maybe that hell wouldn’t devour us in one fell swoop. He’s a complicated man.”
“Did—” Jess began.
“It was exhausting. I mean, getting him to say yes. Though now that I think about it, he may not have consented. I don’t think he’ll take me to court.” She smiled a canary-eating smile.
Lillo thought boardrooms must quail before that smile. She knew she felt a frisson of unease just watching. She wasn’t sure she even liked Diana very much at this moment. “I hope you were gentle with him,” she said in her most sardonic voice.
Diana gave her a tight one-shoulder shrug. “Totally out of my hands. Well, not totally, but you know what I mean. Coffee, yeah, that would be good.”
Lillo waited for her to pour herself a cup. “So what now?”
Diana was no dummy. She knew she was in unknown territory with Ian. Why had she acted on her feelings if she was leaving?
Diana held the cup in both hands but didn’t drink. “That . . . is an unknown.”
“That’s pretty damn selfish.”
She gave Lillo a questioning look. “Afraid I’ll use him and spit him out when I’m done?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, actually, I don’t blame you. It certainly is my MO, but I may be in big trouble here. Somewhere during the night my seduction shifted to something much scarier.”
“He didn’t get dangerous,” Allie said.
“Not in the way you mean.”
“Then what? I don’t get it.”
“Me neither, girlfriend. Me neither.” Diana wandered out onto the deck and sat down on a deck chair. The other three looked at each other, then followed her out and sat in the remaining chairs.
The sun was warm, like their first day in Lighthouse Beach.
“Ah,” said Allie, “a perfect ending to a week that has been totally wonderful . . . crazy.”
And upending and frightening and almost tragic, Lillo thought, and closed her eyes to the sun.
“I’m not walking away,” Diana said.
Lillo turned her head to look at her. “Was that directed to me or are you trying to convince yourself?”
“What? For someone whose life is so totally fucked up, you’re judging me?”
Lillo thought about it. She wanted to be offended, but Diana was right. “Guess it takes one to know one.”
“Touché.”
“I guess we’re a little overprotective of each other.”
“He’s a grown man; he can take care of himself.”
“I know, but—”
“But none of us can really take care of ourselves by ourselves. It helps to have friends.” Diana batted the air with one hand. “God, listen to me. Next thing you know, I’ll be having us all holding hands and singing ‘Circle of Life.’”
“I doubt it,” Jess said. “So are you going to ride today?”
“I don’t know. It may be too much of a good thing.”
“Ha!” Jess jumped from her chair. “You’re scared.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Dee-Two.”
They both started laughing.
Lillo just watched in stupefaction and a kind of admiration. Friends. Their little rituals. Their private silliness. She missed that. She had Mac and Ian, and Doc when she wasn’t fighting with him, Sada, and even Barbara. She loved them and trusted them, but it wasn’t the same.
But she hadn’t realized it until this week.
Part of her wanted life to go back to BRT, Before Road Trip. A road trip that lasted one night before settling in here at her sanctuary, disturbing her life—a lot of lives. But would she really go back if given the chance? For the first time in a long time she’d laughed, had gotten close to women near her own age. Reminisced, told secrets. Felt human for a few minutes.
What was Lillo going to do when they were gone? Sit out another winter while she waited for spring planting? Eat stew with Mac while they listened for trespassers?
Jess sat up, frowning at Diana. “How serious is this? You can’t stay here. I mean, can you?”
“Let’s not get overexcited here. We just had sex between consenting adults.”
“Diana—”
“Let me rephrase that. We had a . . . an interesting . . . amazing night together. I can’t believe I’m saying this shit. We’re getting to know each other. There’s bound to be a learning curve. We’ll work it out. Now let’s leave it.”
“What?” Now all three of them were looking at her.
“‘Work it out’? He’s not a glitchy new operating system.” Lillo didn’t know why she was so mad. She should be glad for Ian if this was what he wanted.
“She didn’t mean it that way,” Jess said.
“Sorry,” Lillo said. “It’s none of my business.”
Diana laughed. “Well, that’s a first. Everything seems to be everybody’s business around here. First it was Doc.”
“Doc?” Allie asked. “When did you see him?”
“He’s staying with Ian. I tried to sneak out while Ian was still asleep.” She cut a look at Lillo. “I needed time to think. But no such luck. I thought for sure I heard Doc leave for the clinic before I crept downstairs, but no. He was in the kitchen waiting for me.
“Let me tell you. I was ready for awkward with Ian. Those first mornings-after usually are. This was much worse.”
“Yeah, he can be a bit of a buttinsky.” A trait that Lillo was beginning to appreciate.
“At least he’d made coffee. Then he gave me holy shit. Jeez, I don’t know why everybody is so protective of Ian. He’s drowning in . . . in . . . kindness and protection. It’s so enervating. He freaking talks to horses instead of people.” Diana held up her hand; it was the one holding her mug and coffee flew into the air. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but hell. Let him try to get out of his comfort zone before it suffocates him.”
“You’re suddenly an expert.”
“No. I’m not. And I realize it might be a pretty scary experiment.”
“You’re planning on conducting some kind of long-distance relationship after one night?”
“Maybe.”
“Oh shit,” Jess said. “You really are.”
“’Fraid so.”
“It’s kind of amazing.” Allie had been pretty quiet until now. Everyone’s focus switched to her.
“What is?” Diana asked. “Me actually thinking about a relationship?”
“Not just that . . . but think about it. A week ago we had just run away from Jess’s wedding. All of us had . . . I don’t know . . .”
“If you say ‘issues,’ I may have to hurt you.” Diana grinned at her.
“Issues,” Allie said, and grinned back. “No, really, think about it. Jess was about to give her life over to the Parker corporation, Diana was setting the world afire with cutting-edge apps, but already divorced twice. Me, refusing to believe I could still have a life. And Lillo . . . well, Lillo came riding in like the cavalry and yanked us all out of that.
“Now look at us. Diana is actually being serious about a man. And a relationship. Heck, when was the last time you ever heard that word on her lips.”
Jess tapped her chin with her finger, an over-the-top gesture of thought. “Um, 2012?”
“Thanks a lot,” Diana said.
“And Jess stood up to her father. And by the way, stood up for bullied kids everywhere.” Allie fist-pumped the air.
“And got Mac shot for it,” Jess said.
“That is not your responsibility.”
“I know, but he never would have come if I hadn’t been here.”
“Maybe, but someone else would have if Mac kept brandishing that shotgun the way she did. Somebody needs to take it away from her.”
“I think someone did,” Diana said. “Because there was no shotgun to be found by the time the sheriff arrived.”
“Well, I hope they threw it in the ocean.”
“Agreed,” said Jess.
“But on the other hand,” Allie said, “if Mac hadn’t gotten shot, Lillo would have never known that she could save a life either.” She shot Lillo an apologetic look.
“Seems like there should have been an easier way,” Lillo said.
“Maybe, but things happen for a reason and—”
Diana jumped up. “If you’re going to start singing ‘Circle of Life,’ I’m outta here.”
“I wasn’t.”
Diana sat down.
“You can sing anytime you want,” Jess said. “But for now, I plan to sit out here all day until Mac gets back. But I’m getting into my swimsuit and slathering on the sunscreen.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Diana said. “What about you, Lillo? Up for an afternoon of sunbathing?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re going to sit out and get a tan. You in?”
“Yeah,” Lillo said. “But first I’m going to run over to Mac’s and make sure she has everything she needs.”
“Why don’t we all go?” Jess said.
“No, that’s okay, you guys prepare to laze. I have a few things I need to do while I’m there. Just start the girlie drinks chilling. I’ll be back.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure. There’s not that much to do.” Plus, she needed time alone. Stuff was happening. She was just getting used to having people around and soon they would be leaving—Jess, Allie, Diana, and Ned and the other guys. No sooner had she gotten used to this new situation than it was all beginning to unravel. She didn’t want to be the one left with the tangled mess that was her life. But she wasn’t quite sure she had a choice. Maybe it was time she asked for advice.
“Stop fussing.” Mac tried to push Clancy away, but she was weak as water. Damn, this was not fun. She was tempted to climb back into that stupid, comfortable hospital bed and take another one of those pills.
But if she let the lighthouse go, if she let anything go, she’d turn into an old woman, rocking on the front porch.
She did sit in the wheelchair they insisted she use. She sat, complaining yet grateful, though she’d never tell Clancy. She was surprised she was still alive. Didn’t remember much about what happened, except that she knew she had to do something to help the girls.
So she did what she always did. Grabbed the shotgun. Big mistake.
Clancy said Lillo had kept her from bleeding out. Well, it was worth it if it helped Lillo get back to what she loved.
Damn, she was tired.
They rolled her out to the sidewalk. “That’s an ambulance.”
“No, it’s an ambulatory care van.”
“Same thing.”
Clancy’s face appeared before hers. “You thought maybe I was gonna take you home in a sidecar? This is what we got. Be thankful.”
She was. How did she get to be so tired? She had thought when she finally got her butt to a hospital or clinic, it would be to fix her old eyes. Now she was going to have to come back again for those. But for now she just wanted to get home. “Humph.”
“What are you humphing about?”
“Getting old.”
“Beats the alternative.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“Then why did you say what you said?”
“Aw, heck, help me get in that thing.”
“You just sit. Let them earn their pay.”
The back of the van opened and lowered. A cabana boy in a white uniform rolled her onto the loading dock, raised her and the chair, and placed them inside, where Mac didn’t get to lie down as she’d been hoping, but had her wheelchair strapped to the floor with her in it. Clancy sat on one of the bench seats, which Mac guessed were reserved for the ambulatory passengers. He folded his hands over his middle, which Mac noted was getting a little paunchy, and closed his eyes. If he fell asleep on the way home, she’d figure out a way to get out of this contraption so she could kick him.
“Enjoy the ride,” Clancy said.
Fat chance, Mac thought as they pulled out of the hospital parking lot. But a few minutes later they were passing under the trees down a road that was taking them home.
Home . . . she’d be fine when she got there.
When Lillo finally made it back to the deck, it was afternoon, the other three were in their swimsuits, and drinks were being passed around.
“Where have you been? I was about to come get you,” Jess said, handing her a glass.
“Sangria?”
“We thought it only fitting,” Allie said. “Sort of bookending the road trip. Besides, we figured we better use up the fruit before it went bad.”
“Good idea.”
“So what took you so long?”
Lillo sipped her drink. “Oh, this is good.”
Jess frowned at her, but didn’t ask again. And that’s exactly what Lillo wanted. She wasn’t even sure of what she’d done. She just knew she’d done it.